Healthcare workers clap back, but comply, when hand hygiene monitored

Despite healthcare workers' negative attitudes toward an electronic hand hygiene monitoring system, hand hygiene compliance improved with its implementation, according to a study published in the American Journal of Infection Control.

Researchers studied the effects of installing an electronic hand hygiene monitoring system in two units at Boston-based Tufts Medical Center. They collected electronic data over eight months and also conducted human observations before, during and after implementation of the system. They gave staff surveys before and after installation.

The study shows that while survey responses revealed negative attitudes about the system before and after installation, hand hygiene compliance, as observed by researchers, increased by an average of 1.3 percentage points per month.